Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Hogwarts Invaded
"Greengrass!" Nott approached Daphne, looking a bit rushed. "Malfoy intends to enact his plan when Dumbledore leaves the school again," he said.
"What's he planning?" Daphne asked.
"I don't know, but he seems to be planning to force him to return to the school, and then intercept him when he does, somehow. Be ready for…well, anything, I suppose," Nott said. He walked away without another word, leaving Daphne on her own in the common room again.
Fortunately, she'd just been about to head out for breakfast, so she wasted no time in telling the others.
Harry glanced up at the staff table, where Dumbledore was in a conversation with McGonagall.
"I'll try and warn him directly after breakfast," Harry said. "He'll probably say he already knows, but better safe than sorry." He hesitated for a moment. "Next time Dumbledore leaves the school, it might be to go and retrieve a Horcrux. If that's the case, I'll be going with him. I don't know what Malfoy's planning, but whatever it is, it can't be good. The four of you should take the remainder of my Felix Felicis. I'll be with Dumbledore anyway, so I'll probably be safe."
"We can handle Malfoy," Ron said dismissively.
"Normally I'd agree," Harry said. "But I've got a really bad feeling about this." He turned to Daphne. "You did say Malfoy plans to act when Dumbledore leaves, right, not when he comes back?"
Daphne nodded. "That's what Nott said, anyway, and he isn't the type to get that sort of thing wrong," she said.
"Malfoy's plans have been terrible thus far. Neither the necklace nor the mead had much chance of reaching Dumbledore, but they could very easily have killed someone else. Even if his current plan is just as stupid as those last two, I don't want to risk any of you getting killed over it, and I get the feeling he doesn't have much time anymore," Harry said.
Daphne nodded. "He's been getting increasingly twitchy and deranged, anyway," she said. "Pansy told me he hardly even talks to her anymore these days."
"Exactly. So hopefully with the Felix Felicis, the four of you will at least be okay. I'll hand the Marauder's Map to you as well, so you can keep an eye on him. If he does anything suspicious, call in the entire Order. Daphne's premonition spoke of claws and teeth, so if possible, one of you should probably fetch Hagrid as well, if things start happening. There might be a magical creature involved, and I don't think anyone but Hagrid would be able to handle something dangerous enough that it could potentially kill Dumbledore," Harry said.
He glanced up at the staff table again and saw Dumbledore getting up from his seat. "I'll go and warn Dumbledore," he said, and quickly got up as well.
"Harry's really becoming something of a general, lately, isn't he?" Ron asked.
"He feels responsible, I think," Daphne said. "Ever since he learned the contents of the prophecy he's been preparing…and…and I think there's another reason, too."
She glanced at Ginny, who seemed to realize what Daphne was talking about and gave a small nod of agreement.
"See, I've seen one thing in the crystal ball that I never told anyone but Harry, and more recently Ginny. I hadn't even told you, because I was afraid that doing so would make it too real."
Ron looked a bit confused, but Hermione paled and whispered, "Oh God, you don't mean…?"
Daphne nodded slowly. "I saw Voldemort killing Harry," she said.
"No way," Ron said immediately. "There's no way he wins!"
Daphne smiled ruefully. "Harry and Ginny said the same thing. But in the vision, Harry didn't even fight back. He just walks up to Voldemort and gets killed…but Harry himself doesn't seem to believe that he will. I think his dedication, especially since the prophecy and the Department of Mysteries, has been in part to prove to himself that he will fight, and not just stand there and take it."
"Well, he'd better!" Ron said indignantly.
"What about us?" Hermione asked. "Are we there as well?"
Daphne shook her head. "No. Harry's alone. I don't know if he simply got separated from us or if we're already…"
Her voice trailed off. In all her time worrying about Harry, she'd never really considered the possibility that perhaps, she and the others might already be dead by the time her final vision occurred. Would Harry really allow himself to be killed even then, though? Surely, he'd want to take Voldemort down if not just his parents, but his friends had all been killed as well?
"Harry will fight," Ginny said, once again seemingly reading Daphne's thoughts. "He won't give up, and if he does I will haunt him forever."
Daphne grinned weakly. "I'll do the same," she said.
Harry returned to the table and spotted the ashen faces of Ron and Hermione. "What happened?" he asked.
"Daphne told us about her vision," Hermione said.
Harry's eyes widened. "Ah," he said. "Well…I don't intend on letting it come true," he said uncomfortably. "I mean, I can't fathom why I would ever let anyone just kill me, least of all Voldemort."
"Good, because if you do, you and I are going to have words, mate," Ron said vehemently.
"Did you warn Dumbledore?" Ginny asked.
Harry nodded. "Yeah. He was glad for the warning and said he'd instruct the Order of the Phoenix to keep an eye out as well. He always does, when he leaves the school, but he said he'd arrange for some extra guards. Between them and our Order, everything should be fine…"
But Daphne could tell, by the troubled expression in his eyes, that he didn't feel comfortable about it at all.
"Dumbledore wants me to come to his office as quickly as possible," Harry said, reading the scroll Jimmy Peakes had just handed him as they were studying in the library one evening.
"D'you think he's found…?" Ron asked.
"I think he might've done," Harry said. He quickly looked at all of them. "All of you ready, just in case?" he asked.
They all nodded apprehensively, and Harry left the library.
Daphne instantly felt her heartrate spike as if the battle had already begun. She took out the Marauder's Map, tapped it with her wand and muttered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Immediately, the Map appeared, and Daphne looked for Harry's dot as it sped toward Dumbledore's office.
Ginny, Ron, and even Hermione stopped their own studying and all glanced at the Map as well. If Harry and Dumbledore left the school together, they'd call in the Order of the Lightning Bolt, though they wouldn't take their Felix Felicis until Malfoy actually began enacting whatever plan he had, so as to make sure their luck wouldn't run out before then.
Daphne saw Harry arriving in Dumbledore's office, and a few minutes later both he and Dumbledore left it, heading toward the entrance hall.
"It's time, then," she said, and felt how dry her mouth had gotten.
Hermione nodded silently and took out her Order Galleon, etching a message into it with her wand. Immediately, Daphne felt the coin in her own pocket heating up as it changed to match Hermione's.
She looked at the Marauder's Map again, trying to spot Malfoy on it, who seemed to be in the common room for the time being. She saw that Tracey and Adrian were there as well, so they should be able to keep an eye on him right away.
Nothing seemed to happen at first, but some time after Harry and Dumbledore had left the Hogwarts grounds, Malfoy left the common room, and Daphne, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron followed his progress on the Map.
"Should we take the Felix?" Ginny wondered.
"The Map doesn't show creatures…if he's getting one, we won't see it. We'll need to keep an eye on him in person," Hermione said.
"Disillusionment Charms?" Ginny asked.
"It'll be too bright in the hallways and the distance would be short enough that he'd see us," Daphne said. "We'd need Invisibility Cloaks. We should just… Hey, Malfoy's gone into that empty classroom…"
They watched the Map intently, though they wouldn't be able to tell what Malfoy might be doing. Had he hidden a creature there? A weapon of some kind? But if there was anything odd in the classroom, either Filch, a teacher, or someone from the Order of the Phoenix would've noticed it; all classroom were periodically searched.
Then, however, a new dot appeared in the classroom, reading 'Amycus Carrow'.
"What the hell?!" Ron said.
"The potion, now!" Daphne said. "And we need to warn the teachers…you guys go and get McGonagall, I'll find Snape!"
Another dot appeared in the classroom, marked 'Alecto Carrow'.
"He's letting Death Eaters into the school!" Ginny said.
"How's he doing that? You can't Apparate into Hogwarts," Hermione said, looking at the Map in disbelief.
"No time, let's move!" Daphne said.
She grabbed the Map and stowed it away, taking out a tiny vial containing some of Harry's Felix Felicis and drinking it in one short gulp. Instantly, she felt the sense of infinite possibilities she'd also felt when she'd taken that single drop all those months ago, though this time it felt much more potent.
She ran through the hallways toward Snape's office and banged on the door.
"Enter," Snape said, and Daphne tore open the door and stepped in.
"There are Death Eaters in the school," she said immediately. "Malfoy let them in."
Snape stared at her for only a second, then he got up from behind his desk, his face contorting with anger.
"Then I must go immediately. Where are they?" he asked.
"First floor, the empty classroom in the third corridor," Daphne said. "Last I saw, it was only Amycus and Alecto Carrow, but there'll be more by now, I'm sure."
Snape nodded once and said, "No matter what happens tonight, remember what I've told you."
His black eyes pierced hers and she nodded. "I will, sir," she said.
Snape swept from the office and took off down the hall, and Daphne wanted to take out the Marauder's Map, but above her, she could already hear a commotion upstairs and she immediately took off running, drawing her wand as she did so.
She sprinted into the entrance hall, which was empty, but one floor higher, up the marble staircase, she heard shouting and people firing spells. She ran up and felt her instincts screaming at her to duck, which she did just in time to avoid a curse shot by a hooded and masked figure, one of three such people who were in a fight with a number of members from the Order of the Lightning Bolt.
"Stupefy!" Daphne shouted, and with her Felix Felicis's luck, she managed to pierce through the Shield Charm the Death Eater had thrown up to defend himself.
One of his fellows turned to face Daphne after having blasted Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott away with a powerful Impediment Jinx, and Daphne knew he was going to fire a Killing Curse at her, aimed for her lower body, so she stepped to the side and fired another Stunner, which was parried by the third Death Eater, but that action had left him vulnerable to the Stunner Remus shot at him from further down the hall.
The last remaining Death Eater then threw some black powder into the air, which instantly shrouded the entire hallway in darkness.
"Damn it!" Daphne shouted. "Lumos!"
The beam of light from her wand did nothing to penetrate the inky black cloud in front of her, but she knew, her senses enhanced by Felix Felicis, that she wouldn't get hit by any curses, that the Death Eater had fled already.
"Where did the Death Eaters come from?" Remus asked when he reached Daphne, and she told him about the classroom she'd seen Malfoy going into.
Remus thought quickly and said, "The secret passage behind the broken torch comes out near there, come on!"
Daphne didn't have to ask him how he knew that, given that he'd helped write the Marauder's Map, and she grinned briefly at her luck at running into Remus, of all people.
"Is Sirius here as well?" she asked as they ran.
Remus nodded. "Yes, and Tonks, Bill, Arthur, and Kingsley. Your Order?"
"All called, don't know who've answered," Daphne replied.
"They won't have been expecting that, I hope," Remus said. "Hopefully we can put a stop to any more appearing…"
They emerged from the secret passage and ran down the hall, keeping their wands out. The corridor in which the classroom was located was eerily silent.
"Homenum Revelio!" Remus said. "Nothing, but remain on your guard…" he muttered.
The practice sessions in the Room of Requirement still fresh in her mind, Daphne nodded. They crept forward toward the classroom, posted on either side of the door, and Remus threw the door open with one hand. Nothing happened, and he carefully peered around the corner.
Daphne, however, felt that the Felix Felicis was telling her to reach out with her senses instead, and she felt no sign of any imminent danger.
"There's no one there," she said.
Remus and Daphne stepped into the classroom and looked around, and once again it was Felix Felicis that pointed Daphne in the right direction.
An old cabinet stood against the wall, its door slightly ajar.
"Remus, look," she said, gesturing at the cabinet.
Remus's eyes widened. "A Vanishing Cabinet," he said, and he groaned. "How could we have been so stupid?!" He looked at Daphne, highly agitated. "There are two kinds of Vanishing Cabinets: ones that simply make objects disappear entirely, making them cease to exist at all…and ones that transport objects from one cabinet to a twin in a different location."
"He brought them in from outside…Borgin and Burkes!" Daphne said, realizing that Borgin must've told Malfoy about the possibility. But what were the odds of having the other one here at Hogwarts?
Remus pointed his wand at the cabinet and muttered a spell. It shimmered briefly, but then looked entirely unharmed again.
"I've frozen the connection on it," he said. "It can't be used from the either end until I lift the spell. Now come on, we need to go and help the others…"
Daphne and Remus set off again, and were quickly approached by Cho Chang.
"The Dark Mark! Above the Astronomy Tower!" she said.
"Who's dead?!" Remus asked sharply.
Cho shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, there's some kind of barrier…no one can get through but there's a big fight going on in the hallways around it…"
Remus nodded grimly and set off, followed closely by Daphne. "You shouldn't go into a fight like this," Remus said as they ran.
"Harry was with Dumbledore when they left the school," she said shortly. "I'm not standing by while he's in danger."
Remus smiled faintly, and then they heard the sounds of fighting up ahead. Remus looked around a corner and quickly pulled his head back, barely avoiding a curse sent his way by a Death Eater further down the hall.
Felix Felicis told Daphne to wait for just a few seconds and then step in, and she followed the suggestion. The moment she stepped around the corner, the Death Eater had just turned away from that corner to deal with people coming from another corridor toward him, and she sent a Stunner his way, which he managed to dodge at the last moment.
He fired a curse at her, but just like before, Daphne could see ahead of time what he would use and where he would shoot it, and she realized she was using movement shadow to do it when she saw that the Death Eater would also move to avoid a spell coming from the other corridor. Knowing where his body would end up, she fired a Stunner at that spot her aim guaranteed by the Felix, and hit him square in the chest. He crumpled to the floor.
"Nice shot," Remus said from behind Daphne. "But that was very reckless of you!"
"I'm using Felix Felicis," Daphne said. "They won't hit me."
"Be careful all the same. Even that potion does not make you immortal," Remus warned.
From the Death Eater's left, the direction of the Astronomy Tower itself, several people came running, among whom Malfoy, the Carrows…and Snape. They barreled down the hall where the other Order members — Phoenix or Lightning Bolt, Daphne didn't know — had been firing at the Death Eater from, and she could hear shouts and spells being fired.
Then Harry came sprinting past as well, running after the group. In the brief second she saw him, she saw that his face was contorted with rage and hatred.
"Oh no," Remus said softly, and Daphne knew he'd seen Harry's expression as well. He began to run, and Daphne followed him.
They'd barely rounded the corner when Tonks came running up to them. "Remus! I've been looking all over for you…You've got to come with me immediately. Fenrir Greyback was here, Remus, and he's attacked Bill Weasley…Madam Pomfrey is looking after him but…well…"
Remus nodded grimly, his face white. "I understand."
Tonks looked at Daphne. "You should come as well. Most of your friends are already there. Ginny's getting Harry."
Daphne nodded once and followed Remus and Tonks silently. Things were beginning to fall into place, her reasoning aided by the Felix Felicis, which was now beginning to wear off.
Harry's expression could only mean that Dumbledore was, as she had foreseen, dead. And aside from Malfoy, there was only one person Harry hated enough to ever look like that. The very man she'd gone to get when the attack began, and the man who therefore must've been guilty. Severus Snape must have been the one to kill Albus Dumbledore.
And she remembered the warning Snape had given her: It was planned. And she knew, then, what it meant. She knew that Snape and Dumbledore had already discussed this, that Dumbledore must have asked Snape to do it to cement his position as a spy in Voldemort's eyes…but why would Dumbledore want to die at all? Or was there something else?
And in her head, just as the Felix Felicis wore off entirely, she could hear another thing Snape had told her, not too long ago: The key information is already in your hands. Dumbledore's withered hand! Dumbledore had already been dying, then, and arranged his own death with Snape.
And with those realizations came the hardest realization of all, and that was that she, in order to protect Snape's cover, had to tell everyone around her that she and Dumbledore had been wrong. That Snape was evil.
She clenched her fists. Though she'd never fully regained her respect for Snape after finding out he'd been a Death Eater, he had begun doing better as a teacher since then. He'd even warned her of his true allegiance, although the confession had been meant for Lily, not her. And now, he'd sacrificed every bit of friendship and alliance he'd built up just to maintain his cover.
It was a worthy act of penance, Daphne had to admit, and while she still didn't forgive him for everything he'd done, at that moment, in spite of everything, most of her respect for him was restored.
So, it's finally happened. Year six is coming to a close, and we're heading into year seven. The final year. The year where I'll have to pay the piper and start killing people off. Can't say I'm looking forward to that, to be honest, because I hate killing characters but it has to be done.
